I think it's great that #Ubuntu offers fonts for all those languages that don't use a Latin based script. I really do. Gives people all over the world a choice other than Windows. Great.

But seriously. Do we really need to install all of them by default on a system that's configured for English at installation?

Every time I want to design something for the first time after a new installation I find myself firing up #GIMP, starting to type, looking for a font that fits the design, and then closing it again just to go to Synaptic first and find all those (useless to me) font packages to remove them.

They could always give a little hint during installation that, if you type or read in other languages, the fonts are available from the software center, or even ask during installation if you want to install fonts for additional languages.

i've seen the same with openSUE / KDE a while ago. not sure to which of the two the package belonged to that required all those languages. in the end most languages were removed. i only use the server version of ubuntu, means no Xorg and no extra fonts, so i can't easily find out which package is responsible -- and must admit don't care enough to find out from the repos and ask whoever maintains it to make them optional.